‘This is Our Way In’: The Civil Society of Environmental NGOs in South-West China

Abstract

A growing number of Chinese environmental groups constitute not only an effective force in tackling environmental issues, but also a genuine civil society that is transforming state‐society relations in China. This paper will consider how the environmental movement now taking shape among south‐western China's environmental NGOs creates new civic freedoms and deals with existing constraints under the current Chinese political system. While this empowerment of local citizens will have a broadly positive influence on the protection of China's environment, precedent from other transitioning countries shows that environmental movements can be inextricably linked to important new freedoms for the public as well as jarring political change.

Civic Environmental NGOs, Civil Society, and Democratisation in China

“…Although the sample is non-random and limited in size, it provides a diverse picture of civic environmental NGOs in China. In particular, it provides an increased variety of organisational forms, registration types, experiences and locations, in contrast to several existing studies, which drew their samples exclusively from NGOs in Beijing or specific regions and did not focus on civic ones (for example, Ho, 2001;Ru and Ortolano, 2004;Schwartz, 2004;Cooper, 2006).…”

“…According to a recent study conducted by the All-China Environment Federation, China was home to 2768 environmental NGOs with 224,000 members by the end of 2005. 1 Diversified in their missions, structures, degree of autonomy and influence (Ma, 2002), Chinese environmental NGOs can roughly be classified into three major types -student environmental groups, government-organised NGOs (GO-NGOs) and civic environmental NGOs (Jin, 1997;Knup, 1997;Xiao and Zhao, 2002;Schwartz, 2004;Cooper, 2006). 2 Different types of environmental NGOs are structured and function differently.…”

Moral Resources and Political Capital: Theorizing the Relationship Between Voluntary Service Organizations and the Development of Civil Society in China

“…This is not only because the government attempts to use the NGOs for their own purposes, such as trying to control society through them (Fisher, 1998, p. 41-42;Pérez-Díaz, 1993, p. 58-66), but also because the more political capital an NGO gains, the more dependent it becomes in terms of its financial and personnel arrangements (Cooper, 2006;Fyfe, 2005). An NGO that loses autonomy actually becomes a quasiofficial organization and is thus with little position to contribute to the development of civil society.…”

Introduction: Development, Sustainability and the Environment in Contemporary China

“…There is no shortage of studies documenting the dire conditions, regulatory failures, and -in a somewhat more hopeful vain -the role that civil society actors might play in addressing these seemingly insurmountable problems (e.g., Cooper, 2006;Economy, 2004;Lo and Tang, 2006;Tilt, 2007;Van Rooij, 2006;Yang, 2005). Less attention, however, has been paid to understanding how the environment, and sustainability in particular, has been incorporated into broader development and investment strategies.…”